In the Sweet Pie and Pie:
(Short # 58 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
Another classic Stooges short. A trio of sisters named Tiska, Taska, and Baska Jones need to be married by tonight or they’ll lose out on a 10-million-dollar inheritance & their beaus are soldiers out to sea. Their lawyer’s scheme: marry the Stooges, who are on death row and will be hung by the neck ‘till dead the next day. Turns out, that next day, the real killers confess so the marriages are intact.
It's usually a swell time seeing the boys mix w/ high society and rich folk. Pie and Pie stands out as there are many hysterical scenes and one-liners in a short with a fast pace. This has everything from a sportscaster covering the hanging (named Bill Stein; at the time there was a popular sportscaster, Bill Stern; he appeared in The Pride of the Yankees) and a pie fight to many creative puns, the creation of a bunk bed gone wrong and parts of a scene from Hoi Polloi from 6 years prior. That scene was Geneva Mitchell unsuccessfully teaching the trio to dance, the lesson spoiled by a bee. Even in truncated form the scene still is riotous.
Pie is one of the most popular of all the shorts among Stooge fans; I agree w/ that assessment due to the overwhelming amount of laughs and such unexpected (in 1941) sights as three people being judo-flipped at the same time.
Some More of Samoa:
(Short # 59 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
The Stooges as tree surgeons… why not? It is a silly effort where Moe asks Larry to “pick up the footprints” of Curly and Larry literally picks them up—along with them visiting the island of Rhum Boogie to find another example of the “puckerless persimmon” tree as a rather irritating old man needs a mate for his puckerless persimmon tree… yeah, don’t scrutinize the plot too hard.
Naturally, Samoa is not the most enlightened look at a Polynesian island—some white people are present, and that’s not even counting the white people cosplaying as natives, or their status as cannibals. Let’s not get started on how Moe and Larry are prompted to start an Amos ‘n’ Andy routine, or why that has aged like spoilt milk by 2025 standards if you don’t know the details of the Amos ‘n’ Andy radio show turned television show.
Even so, Samoa was a pretty funny short, filled w/ new gags. This includes “Vitamin PDQ,” a multi-armed totem and an extended bit featuring an alligator. It’s not one I’d revisit much—at least in full. Certain moments, on the other hand…
Loco Boy Makes Good:
(Short # 60 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
The Stooges actually made good in this short. What I mean is that they are thrown out of their hotel for having 8 months worth of back rent. That is funny as the hotel is only 1 dollar per month. They then again decide to do a slip and fall settlement scam in another establishment (Ye Olde Pilgrim Hotel), only to hear that its kind old matronly owner is behind pay herself and is about to lose the place.
Uncommon is Howard, Fine, & Howard helping someone else out of the goodness of their hearts. Even more rare is that despite themselves, their plan is a rousing success. Sure, as seen before when they engage in carpentry, buffoonery occurs—yet somehow, they succeeded and the hotel now has a swank nightclub.
Waldo Twitchell (an obvious spoof of Walter Winchell, a famed newspaper gossip columnist who even appeared as himself in such films as An Ace in the Crowd) is at the club one night; a bad review from him would be enough to keep people away. While not going to plan, the comedy act they present to the customers is a rousing success due to happenstance: Curly wears a magician’s jacket accidentally; more than just a rabbit comes out.
The final third is superb, sealing the deal on the high marks I gave Loco.
Cactus Makes Perfect:
(Short # 61 in Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk: The Columbia Shorts of The Three Stooges)
Curly invents “a gold collar-button retriever.” Yeah, this is rather silly. After all, they receive a letter that proclaims it is “incomprehensible & utterly impractical” and both them and their mother (portrayed by a man in drag!) think those are compliments. As Ma took some pratfalls herself, perhaps this is why Monte Collins-who was in some others shorts w/ the trio-was in the role. Or, perhaps it was because this was the first short that Collins wrote for the boys, a task that would be done on five other occasions.
This contraption is an arrow fired from a device; the Stooges go “out West” to find actual gold. Unlike typical for them, a contraption they use actually works; a “lost mine” is found. They run afoul of two “desert rat” villains. Not surprisingly, not only does one of them get shot in the butt by an arrow, but two of the Stooges meet the wrong end of a cactus.
My noting of the silliness should not be taken as a slight against Cactus. There are laughs throughout involving dynamite, a ghost town saloon, the lost mine itself, and a funny 90 second routine where the trio share the same small bathroom and do such mundane tasks as shaving & brushing their teeth. Thus, even for something that is “minor” compared to their classics and isn’t Perfect, there are still laughs to be had.
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